Fax machines are now a prevalent part of the office environment since fax machines transmit text and figures in a convenient and quick manner. A sender who is attempting to use the fax machine to transmit a document may need to be notified of the result of this attempt. A conventional fax machine may print a transmittal report summarizing the result of an attempt to send a document via that fax machine.
If the attempt is successful, the report will print that the document has been sent, and will print the time and date of completion in sending that document. If the attempt is unsuccessful, the report will print that the document has not been sent, and the report may include a reason for the failure such as "the receiving fax machine did not answer" for example.
Although the fax machine of the prior art does notify the sender of the result of an attempt to send a document, the prior art notification is limited to the sending fax machine printing out a report at that sending fax machine. However, the sender of the faxed document may require more flexibility and control in being notified of the result. For example, a sender who is busy may not have time to wait at the fax machine to obtain a print-out of the report of the result. Thus, the sender may wish to be notified at another location and at a later specified time. For example, the sender may be faxing a document later in the day, and may wish to be notified at home.
Furthermore, the sender of the faxed document may desire to be notified in a specified manner. In addition to a report simply printing out at the sending fax machine, the user may wish to be notified via E-mail at a computer, or via pager, voice mail, or another fax machine. Additionally, the sender may desire to be notified for only certain conditions. For example, the sender may wish to be notified only if the result of faxing was successful or only if the result of faxing was unsuccessful.